Telephone directory holding equipment has long been in use in telephone booths and otherwise in association with telephone sets. In one well known "pivot-only" type of equipment, a set of binders with telephone directories therein is suspended in a central well in a raised platform from a horizontal pin shaft extending across the top of the well midway between its front and back. Each binder and directory is independently pivotable about such shaft to be movable solely by that pivoting from a stored position in the well to a face-up reading position.
In another directory hanging equipment of the "swivel and pivot" type (commonly used in telephone booths), a carrier arm is mounted below a shelf of the booth by means coupling the inner end of the arm to the underside of the shelf to permit swiveling of the arm in a horizontal plane. One or two binders with telephone directories therein are coupled to the outer end of the arm by hinge means permitting pivoting of the one or two binders about a horizontal axis at the arm's free end and disposed transverse to its centerline. Normally, the arm extends from its pivot lengthwise of the shelf to suspend and store the binder(s) and directory(ies) beneath the shelf. When, however, it is desired to read a directory, the arm is swiveled so that its outer end is positioned outward of the shelf's front, and the binder for that directory is then pivoted outward, upward and over from its suspended stored position to a position at which the binder is supported from underneath by the arm and is face-up and may be opened to permit reading of the directory therein.
Telephone directory holding equipments of the types described above have certain practical limitations. For example, equipments of the "pivot-only" type are not particularly convenient for use in confined spaces such as is afforded by telephone booths. On the other hand, while swivel-and-pivot equipments are well adapted for telephone booth usage, up to now such equipments have not been suited for handling more than two binders and directories.